Of Quidditch Practices and Broom Cupboards
by SiriuslyGeorgia
Summary: When Marlene drags Lily to an early-morning Quidditch practice, the last thing she wants is for Sirius Black to start singing James Potter's praises and for her to be unable to think of anything else. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: Characters, Hogwarts, Quidditch, everything belongs to J.K.**

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Seven a.m. one Saturday morning saw a disgruntled Lily Evans sitting in the stands surrounding the Quidditch Pitch, internally cursing James Potter for scheduling such early practices and Marlene McKinnon for dragging her along. So far, Lily had avoided detection from a certain dark haired Quidditch Captain who never missed an opportunity to ask her out. Practice had just started and Lily figured she'd be there for a while so she opened a book she had brought with her and started reading. Every so often a light autumn breeze swept over Lily and whenever this happened, Lily looked up, usually to the sight of James Potter shouting constructive criticism at his teammates. Once, she caught the eye of Marlene, who turned her head towards James then back at Lily, winking at the latter. Lily rolled her eyes at the gesture, but it led her to think of why everyone seemed to think she and James were 'meant for each other'.

James Potter and Lily Evans could not be any more different. The only similarity between them was their house, year and the fact they were Head Boy and Head Girl. James was arrogant and a bully – Lily had not accepted the fact that he was not as arrogant as he used to be and had stopped hexing first years – while Lily was quite modest and usually the first one to stick up for the bullying victims. Lily was studious and always handed in her homework, while the Professors counted themselves lucky if one of James' essays landed on their desk on time. Rumours spread that James had shagged half of the sixth and seventh year girls, but the whole of Hogwarts nearly died of shock when Lily was caught snogging a Ravenclaw last year. James liked to be the centre of attention along with his friends, and Lily preferred to blur in the background – not disappear completely, just _blur_. James was an only child and even though Petunia hated Lily, they were still sisters. Lily wasn't exactly poor, but James could literally roll in a pool of Galleons if he wanted to, due to his pure-blood status. This was another way they differed – James' blood status practically made him wizard royalty while the moment people found out her parents were muggles, people thought less of Lily.

He does have a nice body though, thought Lily as her eyes followed James as he zoomed through the air on his Nimbus 1500. She immediately shook the thought out of her head and returned to her book.

"You could be less obvious about the staring, Evans, people might think you fancy him." said a voice in Lily's ear and she jumped, closing her book shut and turning sideways to face Sirius Black, who had taken up residence next to her on the bench, unnoticed until he'd spoken.

"I don't fancy Potter," Lily snapped.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I'm sure, I think I'd know if I did."

"You see, Evans, I don't think you would." said Sirius, and Lily raised an eyebrow at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I think you fancy him, but you're denial because you don't want to like him because you think he's still the same person he was in fifth year and you hated him then." Sirius looked proud and Lily laughed in spite of herself.

"You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" Sirius nodded in response. "You're completely wrong, though."

"Prove it."

"Potter is arrogant, immature, reckless, vain, self-centred and a bully."

Sirius groaned. "I really don't understand why he's in love with you; you don't even notice that he's not half those things anymore."

"Fine, whatever, he's changed – wait, what did you say? James Potter is not _in love_ with me!"

"Are you kidding me?" Sirius scoffed. "This is coming from the guy who's spent the most part of the last six long years listening to his best mate go on and on about how perfect you are. It's Lily this, Lily that. Sometimes he needs a good slap to get his mind off you."

Lily had gone slightly red, but she shook her head. "He doesn't love me. He just keeps asking me out because I'm the only person who's ever said no to him and his ego can't handle it."

"You really are in denial. The poor boy keeps asking you out because he _wants_ to go out with you."

Lily glanced over to the Quidditch pitch, wondering if what Sirius was saying was the truth; her eyes immediately sought out James who had just scored a spectacular goal and was doing a lap of victory. It was during this lap when James spotted his best friend and, to put it bluntly, the girl of his dreams sitting together on the otherwise deserted stands.

"He's coming over here," said a smirking Sirius, "Try to keep your knickers on, Evans."

"Oi! I do _not_ fancy James Potter!" hissed Lily. Before Sirius could argue, James was hovering in front of them on his broomstick.

"Alright, Prongs?" asked Sirius casually. "Evans and I were just having a nice chat."

James surveyed Lily's face. "Then why does Lily's face match her hair?"

"Oh no reason," said Sirius breezily. "She was just telling me all about how she's going to jump me later in that broom cupboard on the third floor, around eleven."

"I was not!" Lily protested, over James and Sirius' guffaws.

At this point, Marlene dived gracefully from her spot in the air. "What _are _you doing Potter? There's a practice going on here!"

"I know that, Marlene. I'm the Captain, I tend to organise these things. I was just having a break to listen to how much Lily wants to shag Sirius."

The laughter intensified as Marlene joined in.

Furiously, Lily stood up, causing the book resting on her lap to fall to the wooden stand with a thud. "I would rather shag him," Lily jabbed a finger in James' direction, "than you, Black. And that's saying something."

As she marched down the steps that would lead her to the ground, Lily heard the unmistakable groan of James Potter as he tried to follow her, and the shouting of Marlene as she swore she would kill him if she made him get out of bed this early for nothing.

James made no attempt to follow Lily as she strode across the grounds towards the castle, probably though fear for his life, but Lily was grateful nonetheless. Once back in her dorm, Lily fell into her bed, glad of the excuse to get a few more hours sleep. Frustratingly, sleep evaded her and she was making the familiar walk to the library before Marlene had even returned from Quidditch practice.

Why did she have to say she'd rather shag James than Sirius? Lily thought as she tucked herself into a chair at a table in the back of the nearly empty library. Producing a quill and parchment, Lily began writing a theory essay for Slughorn.

_The Polyjuice potion is an extremely complex potion that allows the drinker to possess the outward appearance of another human if –_

As if James Potter needed another reason to harass her!

_the potion contains DNA from the person who's appearance is desired._

All she'd done was imply she preferred him over his vulgar friend, but over six years in close proximity with James told her he'd take it much further.

_If brewed correctly, the potion must be taken at regular intervals, once every hour, to ensure continuous disguise. _

How dare Sirius Black claim that she, Lily Evans, fancied James Potter? The mere thought was absurd.

_If brewed incorrectly, ingestion of the potion may result in death, or a permanent disfigurement._

And he'd said that James was in love with her. In love!

_Polyjuice Potion has a number of uses, especially currently – _

Lily banged her head on the table as another James Potter related thought swam into her mind. (What was it that Sirius had said about James actually _wanting_ to go out with her?) A few younger Ravenclaws looked at her strangely from a few tables over and she earned a 'shh!' from Madam Pince. Fed up with being distracted, Lily gathered up her possessions and made her way out of the library. Hoping Marlene would be coming up from the pitch (practices under the new Captain had proved themselves extremely long), Lily made her way downstairs so she could accost Marlene and maybe maim her for forcing Lily to make an appearance at practice.

"Oh look at that, you're right on time!"

Lily jumped at the voice. Turning her head, she saw James Potter with something tucked into the crook of his arm, leaning against the wall next to a door. Mentally, she counted the staircases she had walked down. She was on the third floor, and she would bet it was exactly eleven o'clock.

Thankfully, Lily had regained her cool since earlier that morning. "I thought I was meeting Sirius?"

"Ha ha, very funny Evans; anyway, I just came to give you this." James held out the object that he'd been holding. It was the book she'd been reading outside.

Lily approached him accepted the book as if it would blow up. "You got this back for me?"

Running a hand through his hair, James said, "Yeah, well, it was just sitting there."

"Thanks." Lily said appreciatively. Climbing those stairs to retrieve the book hadn't been high on the list of things she wanted to do.

"So," said James, as they both became aware Lily would normally have walked away angrily at this point. "Would you really rather shag me than Sirius?"

Sighing, Lily felt the blood rush to her face. She thought about saying no and leaving it at that, but something made her appraise him and answer truthfully. "Yeah, I think I would."

James beamed at her. Slowly, she smiled back.

"So," said James, though he appeared to have nothing else to say.

"So," Lily echoed. She, also, had nothing else to say, instead choosing to fumble in her bag to make room for the newly returned book. When she looked back up to James, he was grinning even wider.

"What?"

James laid a hand on the doorknob next to him. Turning it, he gestured from her to the inside of the broom cupboard with his other hand. He raised an eyebrow at her and winked.

"No!" she exclaimed, but she was laughing and continued laughing as she made her way down the corridor, away from James Potter.

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**A/N: I wrote the first half of this over a year ago, but when I found it again (labelled 'ugh') an hour and a half ago I had no idea what my intention was, so I jumbled this together. Hope you enjoyed!**


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